Nashua, NH — A legal battle over Nashua’s “Citizen Flag Pole” is over—and free speech won.

A federal district court in New Hampshire has entered a judgment against the City of Nashua in Scaer, et al. v. City of Nashua, a First Amendment case challenging the city’s viewpoint-based censorship of citizen flag requests.

The judgment, accepted by Institute for Free Speech clients Bethany and Stephen Scaer and entered by the court, orders Nashua to permanently maintain a policy closing the City Hall flagpoles to private expression and prohibits the city from resuming the discriminatory practices at the heart of the lawsuit.

The case stemmed from Nashua’s repeated denials of the Scaers’ requests to fly flags on the city’s so-called “Citizen Flag Pole,” offering no substantive justification beyond concluding that the Scaers’ flags were “not in harmony” with the city’s message. In one instance, Nashua initially approved Bethany Scaer’s “Save Women’s Sports” flag, but the city then revoked that approval just one day later after receiving complaints.

In December 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously reversed a lower court ruling, holding that Nashua had violated the First Amendment by engaging in viewpoint discrimination and rejecting the city’s attempt to characterize its censorship as “government speech.”

“The First Circuit made clear last December that Nashua’s censorship was unconstitutional,” said Institute for Free Speech attorney Nathan Ristuccia, who argued the case before the First Circuit. “Today’s judgment ensures that such censorship cannot happen again.”

“Nashua’s flagpole policy was unconstitutional, and we’re grateful and happy that the city is permanently barred from going back to it,” said plaintiff Beth Scaer. “That matters not just for our First Amendment rights, but for the rights of anyone who might have faced the same treatment in the future.”

The Scaers’ claims for declaratory and injunctive relief were resolved by the First Circuit’s December ruling and the terms of the judgment. The district court also ordered the city to pay nominal damages to each plaintiff in the amount of $17.91 (symbolic of the year of the First Amendment’s ratification), plus certain applicable costs and interest. The remaining question of attorneys’ fees will be addressed in subsequent proceedings. Local counsel Roy S. McCandless assisted the Institute in defending the Scaers’ First Amendment rights.

To read the accepted offer of judgment in Scaer, et al. v. City of Nashua, et al., click here. To visit the Institute’s case page, including all filings and case resources, including client photos, click here.

About the Institute for Free Speech

The Institute for Free Speech promotes and defends the political speech rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government guaranteed by the First Amendment.